Zhao Yun was waiting for a suitable time to attack.
Cao Xiu was also waiting, waiting for Cao Chun to quickly lead his troops to follow and surround Liu Bei.
But in the end, it was Zhao Yun who seized the opportunity first.
Cao Xiu still ordered the tigers and leopards to ride and shoot in front of the chariot formation as usual, harassing Liu Bei's army.
Zhao Yun did not choose to attack immediately, but waited for the moment when the tiger and leopard knight tired or relaxed their vigilance.
The current situation is obvious. Cao Xiu can ask the tiger and leopard cavalry to attack the chariot formation from time to time, but Liu Beijun does not dare to leave the chariot formation at all, and can only huddle in the chariot formation and shoot arrows to passively defend.
After going back and forth several times, even if Cao Xiu was not careless, the tiger and leopard knights would feel that the enemy could not do anything to them, so they slowly relaxed their vigilance.
In addition, mounted archery is not energy-consuming, and shooting a bow requires high arm strength. Therefore, after several rounds of mounted archery, the soldiers of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry will become tired and careless.
What Zhao Yun was waiting for was this opportunity.
It was another round of cavalry shooting. At this time, the tiger and leopard knights did not even assume the basic offensive formation. They just wanted to rush to Liu Bei's chariot formation and return to the army to rest after shooting a round of arrows.
Zhao Yun, on the other hand, chose the moment when the tiger and leopard cavalry finished shooting their arrows and were about to return to the army, and asked Zhang Fei to open the small door.
The four small doors opened at the same time. Zhao Yun led more than a hundred cavalry to rush out from the car formation. Using Zhao Yun as an arrow, they quickly formed an arrow formation and followed the tiger and leopard riders who retreated after shooting arrows to kill them.
Of course, the tiger and leopard knights who had just shot the arrows could not turn their horses to face the enemy immediately. Their formation was not complete at the moment.
But fortunately, Cao Xiu remained calm. As soon as he saw the cavalry appearing in the car formation, he made a decision immediately.
First, he asked the tiger and leopard knights who had finished shooting the arrows to circle back and form a formation. He led the dozens of tiger and leopard knights who had never been used. Using him as an arrow, he used the sharp arrow formation against the sharp arrow formation to kill Zhao Yun. passed.
It has to be said that Cao Xiu is a famous general. When he commanded the tiger and leopard cavalry to harass and raid, he was always on guard against possible enemy attacks.
Although Cao Xiu thought that those who came out might be infantry, so he only left a few dozen tiger and leopard cavalry as reserve troops, but considering that these were tiger and leopard cavalry, even if they faced more than a hundred cavalry, there should be no problem. Bar? !
Then, reality gave Cao Xiu a shot.
It's a real shot.
Cao Xiu personally led dozens of tiger and leopard cavalry against more than a hundred rangers led by Zhao Yun. In just one staggered round, Cao Xiu saw a flash of white light in front of his eyes. In an instant, Cao Xiu felt bad. He subconsciously slumped his shoulders, and then felt My shoulder went numb, followed by a sharp pain.
Cao Xiu was shocked and angry.
Surprisingly, with his martial arts skills and long experience in battles, he was no match for the enemy generals on the opposite side.
One confrontation caused him to be stabbed in the shoulder, and he was no longer able to lift a knife to fight.
What makes him angry is that the dozens of tiger and leopard cavalry behind him are unable to stop the sharpness of this cavalryman. They almost always dismount, allowing the enemy to rely on their own strength to kill his cavalry alive. Then without looking back he rode directly towards the hundreds of tigers and leopards who were preparing to assemble.
Cao Xiu was even more dumbfounded by the rest.
Even if the tiger and leopard cavalry have traveled a long distance and shot here for several rounds, they are already exhausted. But you are the tiger and leopard cavalry. They are the most elite troops among all the branches of Cao's army. They have the highest military pay. Everyone wears armor. There are still enough people. There are five hundred people.
Why were more than a hundred rangers killed so hard that they couldn't even assemble a military formation? !
That's a ranger, a ranger whose men and horses are unarmored, a ranger who can shoot arrows and is weak in hand-to-hand combat. Are you really not going to embarrass yourself to the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry? !
But so what if he is embarrassed, Cao Xiu himself can't even hold a knife now, what can he do? !
Cao Xiu had no choice but to grit his teeth, stamp his feet, and directly gave the order to scatter on the spot and flee for his life.
If they continue to fight, they will be massacred. It is better to scatter and run for their lives, as long as they can escape.
Cao Xiu had no choice. Of course he knew that such an order would bring great losses to the Hubao Cavalry, but if he did not give such an order, the Hubao Cavalry would suffer even greater losses and would be killed by the cavalry general and the rangers. Guerrilla until death, no one can escape until the end.
As for Liu Bei, although he was very unwilling, Cao Xiu could only withdraw first, and then lead the army to pursue after joining Cao Chun.
Cavalry is always faster than infantry.
Therefore, after Cao Xiu issued the order, he immediately retreated northward under the protection of the remaining cavalry.
But Zhao Yun is not stupid, and when it comes to cavalry command, Cao Xiu is not a general at the same level as Zhao Yun.
Cao Xiu ordered the tiger and leopard cavalry to disperse in all directions to break out of the encirclement. Zhao Yun paid no attention to other directions and only chased Cao Xiu, who was fleeing to the north, and fought fiercely.
One Cao Xiu is the general, and the other Zhao Yun knows that once the cavalry retreats, it is basically impossible to fight back immediately.
If Cao Xiu wanted to get rid of his pursuit, he could only go to a place where there were organized cavalry. Zhao Yun pursued Cao Xiu so eagerly so that Cao Xiu would not have time to collect the defeated troops, so he could only take him to where there were organized cavalry, and Zhao Yun did not give Cao Xiu a chance to reorganize his army, and took advantage of the impact of Cao Xiu's broken army and the formation and morale of the organic cavalry to defeat the enemy with one force.
This tactic would be used by Tang Taizong five hundred years later, and the effect was very good. He defeated Xue Rengao and wiped out Longyou in one battle.
After all, Cao Xiu was a little inexperienced, and he also knew that he needed to have an established combat force to stop Zhao Yun, so he could only go up the road where he came from, where he had left a total of 400 cavalry to contain the two car formations.
As long as he can integrate the four hundred cavalry, he might be able to surround and kill the pursuers. After all, the pursuers only have more than a hundred cavalry, and they are still rangers.
But Cao Xiu discovered that this matter was a trap.
He had just reunited the two hundred cavalry who had stayed at the second support point. Before they could form a formation, Zhao Yun had already killed them. This timing made Cao Xiu uncomfortable.
What made Cao Xiu even more uncomfortable was that the 2,780 cavalrymen under his command still failed to successfully form a formation. They were still defeated one by one by the general with white horses and silver spears in a chaotic battle. In the end, Cao Xiu didn't even need to give orders. They themselves collapsed first.
Cao Xiu had no choice but to move forward to the first containment point, and the final result was just to repeat the same process.
By this time, Cao Xiu also knew that he had been fooled, and could only lead dozens of cavalry, galloping towards the north without looking back, and then make plans after meeting Cao Chun.
Zhao Yun did not continue to chase because Liu Bei's army in the first line told him that there were no more of his own behind, so Zhao Yun stopped. Otherwise, it would be ridiculous to catch up and run into Cao's army.
Zhao Yun stopped his advance and took over the command of the chariot formation at the same time. He led the chariot formation defenders to retreat slowly and went to join Liu Bei.
Liu Bei, on his side, has long been waiting for Zhao Yun to come back.
It's true that Liu Bei had never seen cavalry attack before, but he had never seen such a one-sided pursuit. He was even more incredible when Zhao Yun used more than a hundred rangers to defeat more than 500 tiger and leopard cavalry.
As soon as Zhao Yun reported back, Liu Bei learned that Cao Xiu's thousand tiger and leopard cavalry had suffered heavy losses, and Cao Xiu only escaped with dozens of people, and he laughed even more happily.
But Zhuge Liang couldn't laugh.
Since Cao Cao has sent troops to chase Liu Bei, it is certainly impossible to send only a thousand men, even if they are tiger and leopard cavalry, this is unrealistic.
Therefore, Cao Xiu retreated this time, most likely to gather reinforcements, and those who arrived again were probably the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.
Zhuge Liang has now seen the ability of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry. If it weren't for the small number of soldiers and Zhao Yun's surprise, relying on his superb force value and cavalry command ability, it's hard to say what the outcome would be.
If they are always suppressed by the tiger and leopard cavalry as they were in the early days, even if there is a car formation, it will only be a matter of time before they are breached.
Moreover, Zhuge Liang was worried that Cao Cao would personally lead an army to pursue him.
If Cao Cao comes in person, the chariot formation will face the infantry, which has an absolute advantage in numbers, and the chance of winning is almost zero.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang persuaded Liu Bei not to go south to Jiangling now, but to go directly to Hanjinkou, rely on Zhang Xi's navy waiting there, and retreat to Jiangxia before making plans.
Liu Bei took this well and immediately ordered the entire army to turn from south to west, heading for Hanjinkou.
As for the people, Liu Bei also came forward to persuade these people. If they were willing to follow them to Jiangxia, he would treat them well, but if they wanted to go south to Jiangling, Liu Bei would not stop them.
But obviously, it was not Liu Bei who coerced these people, but the number of people who voluntarily followed Liu Bei south to Jiangling was only a minority, and most people were still willing to follow Liu Bei to Hanjinkou.
Zhuge Liang was now used to it and knew that he could not abandon these people, so he marched according to the original plan, letting Zhang Fei lead the infantry to protect him, while Zhao Yun's cavalry recuperated in the center.
Now Zhuge Liang also understands that Zhao Yun's cavalry team is the key. As long as this team is there, Liu Bei's army will be able to fight even against pursuing troops like the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.
(End of chapter)
